


All It Takes

by magicites



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Humanstuck, In which there is no dialogue, only actions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-23
Updated: 2012-05-23
Packaged: 2017-11-05 20:41:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/410805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicites/pseuds/magicites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They had been best friends since Nepeta could remember. But even strong bonds can unravel, and when her friendship with Karkat begins to fray at the edges, she learns that a few simple gestures can be enough to fix it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All It Takes

**Author's Note:**

> This is a (late) birthday gift for my very good friend Kit! With the prompt she gave me, I decided to experiment a little and aim for a fic with absolutely no dialogue. I think it turned out decently, given the characters its about.

It was strange, to feel so excluded. This silence was one that burned, leaving her nerves buzzing with pain, little meteors that strike her skin and leave craters in her heart.

She hadn’t always felt this way; just a few months ago, he was closer to her than he was to anyone else. Pride surged through her at the thought of being Karkat Vantas’s best friend. Despite them both being talkative people, she knew that she was one of the few people that he could stay in a comfortable silence with. She may never be able to take his heart the way he took hers without even meaning to, but she was more than happy with just being special to him.

That changed when she introduced him to Terezi Pyrope and John Egbert.

Nepeta Leijon had always been a firm believer in having a large circle of friends. It meant that there was always another voice to add to the conversation, another smile to help a cheerful mood grow, another face to add to her shipping wall. She had been lucky enough to accumulate a large amount of friends through various programs and activities, but Karkat was much more reserved than her, no matter how badly he secretly craved attention.

Terezi was one of her roleplaying buddies; a fierce lawyer-dragon who was ruthless in delivering swift justice and destroying her enemies. Karkat had never been fond of roleplaying (and would roleplay with Nepeta only after a large groan and murmured protests), but she could tell that their personalities would mesh well together. Terezi could possibly bring him out of his shell, a feat Nepeta had been unable to do.

Meanwhile, she met John through her church. She was far from religious, but luckily, so was he, and amidst the Confirmation classes and dreary sermons, they bonded quickly. He had a tendency to be a bit of an asshole without really realizing it, and he never knew when to not talk about things he really enjoyed. Still, he wasn’t a bad or unfriendly person! He reminded her a bit of Karkat, and she hoped that they would get along.

She was right on both accounts, but the closer Karkat became to them, the darker and stronger the swirls of jealously within her heart grew and the more upset with her own feelings she became. John and Terezi didn’t do anything wrong, after all. They became friends with Karkat, just like she had hoped they would.

But it felt like she was no longer his best friend. They had been neighbors since she could remember, and yet it became rarer and rarer to see Karkat. Even when she did, he was always in contact with either Terezi or John, through text or ims or something. More than once had she climbed over the flimsy fence separating their backyards to surprise him, only to hear two separate voices laughing inside of his room.

Once, she stayed outside of his window and listened to him guffawing like he didn’t have a single care in the world. Her limbs grew heavy with disappointment, and she slumped down to the ground like an abandoned doll. She was upset, yes, but mostly with herself.

She had never been able to make him laugh like that. She had never been able to lift the ever-present weight off of his shoulders like they could, even though she thought she knew him inside and out, with every single secret of his ever whispered to her locked away from the world. She hated herself for feeling this way and being so useless.

Her self-loathing grow in proportion to the amount of jealousy she held towards Terezi and John, much to her own disgust. They had done nothing wrong. Her own dark feelings were only a result of a misplaced infatuation that she was downright silly for having. Karkat had never liked her that way. He never would. They weren’t even best friends. She was just the neighbor girl, no matter how much she wanted to break out of that role and be something more.

It got to the point where she was lucky if Karkat visited her once a week. Even when she wasn’t busy, there was never a knock at her window or a loud groan and a request to be let in. There was just.

Nothing.

Only the kind of silence that crawled under her skin and wracked her body with shivers.

Instead of Karkat’s raspy growl of a voice or his bark of laughter, there was only the sound of her blood rushing in her ears, or of her own steady, quiet breathing. It was too lonely.

Besides, she had been moping around long enough. It was time to go talk to Karkat and get this straightened out. Communication was key in any kind of relationship. She wasn’t going to lose her best friend for such a dumb reason.

She informed her current IM’ing partner, Equius (who she jokingly referred to as the most stuck-up, snootiest guy she knew) of her plan, and ignored his warning not to go. He was being silly; she wouldn’t get her heart broken. Karkat was too nice for that, no matter how grumpy he was on the outside. She was a lot stronger than most people thought, and even if she wasn’t, this was something they needed to talk about.

She left her house and climbed over the flimsy chain-link fence separating their yards in one graceful move. It felt strange to mimic Karkat’s usual role and be the one coming into his yard, but it needed to be done. Besides, being the predator was a thrill that she would never quite get used to. Not that she ever wanted to, heehee.

She sidled up to his window, giving a couple of rapid-fire taps on the glass. She pressed her ear to it, ignoring the cold shiver down her spine in favor of the warm feeling curling through her chest at the sound of his footsteps. He opened the window and fixed her with a confused glare, but she simply clambered in through the small hole and tumbled onto his gray carpet with a small giggle.

A long time ago, they reached a point in their friendship where words were simply not needed. She only hoped that their bond was still strong enough to keep that statement true. She moved over to his bed and sat down, picking up the small, red and teal dragon by his pillow in the process. She scanned around, and sure enough, she found a small, blue necklace on his nightstand. She grabbed it and twined the thin chain through her fingers, looking up through her eyelashes to make sure Karkat was watching her.

He was, and with a vaguely confused expression at that. She clasped the chain around the dragon’s neck, and held it up to make sure he knew what it was. He raised an eyebrow at her, but made no other move.

She growled softly, and looked around for something that would really let her message sink in. The fact that she couldn’t use anything else on his bed or nightstand to illustrate her point was a blessing full of a terrible, aching pain. She hopped off of his bed and moved her way into his closet. There, she found a few of the DVD’s she gave him for his birthday a few years back, as well as a large poster covered in the couples they had decided to be ideal in said movies, regardless of their canon status. She held up the DVDs, giving him time to examine the cover of each one, before setting them down and unrolling the poster.

She hoped that it reminded him of the way she helped him stop be so insecure about the things he liked, even if they weren’t always normal.

She tapped at the corner, pointing to a small drawing of herself and Karkat smiling together. He had drawn it, and while it was a terrible drawing by most standards, she still thought it looked lovely. She tapped it one last time for extra emphasis, and looked at him to gauge his reaction.

It took a moment, but realization dawned on him. His eyes widened, and his shoulders slumped down as he turned away, drawing within himself, trying to tuck himself into an invisible shell. She sighed softly and set the poster down on the floor. She gave his shoulder a light tap, and he looked back, eyes wide and full of guilt, searching for the poster. When he found it, he darted past her, grabbed the tape off of his nightstand, and hung it right above his bedpost.

It was a silent apology; a plea for forgiveness. He knew he had messed up, and the guilt he felt was obvious by the way he refused to look at her. She smiled, and shook her head. He didn’t need to apologize!

So she forced him to turn around, and gently grabbed his chin, tilting it until he was forced to look at her. She looked right into his eyes and grinned. They had always been such a pretty, bright red, unlike anything she had seen before. They were such a lovely contrast to the brown of his skin.

He was simply perfect.

He frowned, and with a laugh, she pulled him into a tight hug, swaying him back and forth. His arms gently encircled her back, pulling her closer to him. They were close enough to the same height that he couldn’t exactly tuck her head under his, so he settled for resting his cheek on the top of her shoulder.

She didn’t need words to communicate how much she loved him. He already knew.


End file.
